No Facilities as Woman Breastfeeds in Bengal Tea Garden

A
woman sits on a rock at a tea garden in Darjeeling. There's a crying
baby in her lap, trying to suckle her, as another child, slightly older
looks curiously at the man taking a video of them.
"She's trying
to breastfeed her child. There is no creche here", says the man taking
the video. He pans the camera to show pluckers at the tea garden with no
masks or any other protective gear.
This video, which has been obtained by The Quint, was taken at a tea garden in Darjeeling run by the Bansal Tea Corporation.

'Can't Maintain Social Distance In Tea Gardens'

The video, which was sent to The Quint
by a source at a tea estate in Darjeeling, is representative of the
state of tea garden workers in the North Bengal district, say members of
tea workers' unions.
On 11 April, the West Bengal government
announced that tea gardens in the state can begin plucking operations
but by employing only 25 percent of the workforce. The gardens were
mandated to follow all safety protocols.
"The tea garden is not
like any other industry. Workers there don't come to a factory and go
home", says Suraj Pathak, President of the Darjeeling District Chai
Kaman Mazdoor Union, a union of tea garden workers.

Pathak's
claims about the practical problems of following the
government-mandated social distancing norms in tea gardens is echoed by
Sunil Rai, secretary of the Darjeeling Terai Dooars Kriya Kaman Mazdoor
Union.
"A lot of the work that are done in tea gardens like
plucking and weighing are, by definition, group activities. You can't do
them while maintaining a distance." said Rai.
He further added
that due to the low wages that tea garden workers get, many of them also
go to other cities like Mumbai and Delhi to work and then come back
during the plucking season.
"We don't know whether they have come
back with the disease, and due to the close quarters that all the
workers stay in, that is a matter of concern", said Rai.
Member of Parliament (MP) from Darjeeling, Raju Bista, who belongs to the BJP, told The Quint
that he too had seen the video and it saddened him. He too questioned
how social distancing can be maintained in a tea garden where workers
are required to work in close proximity.
"When the Central
government had initially said that plantation workers could work with 50
percent workforce, I'd immediately written them a letter. I said that I
welcome the decision but the situation in West Bengal is such that this
cannot be implemented. I requested them to review it", Bista said.
He
also added that while the Mamata Banerjee-led state government did not
agree to 50 percent workers working in plantations initially, it has now
brought the 25 percent workforce rule.
"This is pure politics. Nothing else", he said.

Wages Not Paid During Lockdown, No Sanitation Facilities

Both Pathak and Rai also say that the tea garden workers have not received their wages for the entire period of the lockdown.
Earlier,
when work in the gardens were at a standstill, the government had
ordered that tea garden workers should be paid during the lockdown
period.
"The problem is that the plantation owners are making the
workers work because it benefits them, but also ignoring the government
diktat on ensuring payment for all workers", says Pathak.
Moreover,
he says that apart from soap and water, which is provided to the
workers when they come in for duty, no other protective facilities are
being extended to the workers.
"There are no masks, no gloves and
no sanitisers. The dispensaries in the tea gardens, often the only place
to get medical supplies in miles, are also ill-stocked", he said.
In the video sent to The Quint, the man taking the video, asks the managers of the garden workers why they are wearing masks when the workers are not.
To
this the managers say that they got their masks on their own that the
company had not given them any instructions on the safety procedures
that the workers needs to follow.
There are approximately 87 tea gardens in Darjeeling with over 53,000 permanent workers.
"The
lockdown rules have to be implemented by the state government", said
Bista. "But the statement government has been a failure in implementing
the lockdown. They said that the owners will ensure safety of the
workers. But the owner's won't. They obviously just care that their work
gets done. It is the government's job to give them masks and ensure
their personal hygiene", he added.
Rai, on the other hand, is worried that if a case does surface, there are not enough facilities in the gardens to handle it.
"There
is not even an ambulance in the gardens. We are not against work, but
it should only have been started once all the precautions were in
place", he says.
"This is a disaster waiting to happen", he signs off.

https://www.thequint.com

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A woman sits on a rock at a tea garden in Darjeeling. There's a crying baby in her lap, trying to suckle her, as another child, slightly older looks curiously at the man taking a video of them.